Why Is There Suffering in the World? | Ian Hutchinson and Lex Fridman

Full episode with Ian Hutchinson (Jul 2020): • Ian Hutchinson: Nuclea...
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Ian Hutchinson, a nuclear engineer and plasma physicist at MIT. He has made a number of important contributions in plasma physics including the magnetic confinement of plasmas seeking to enable fusion reactions, which is the energy source of the stars, to be used for practical energy production. Current nuclear reactors are based on fission as we discuss. Ian has also written on the philosophy of science and the relationship between science and religion.
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[@gonzothegreat1317]

Consciousness is, once you think about it, just an overdeveloped pain receptor. The more conscious we are, the more pain we feel.

[@curcumin417]

It's more of an experience amplifier to me -Pain, pleasure, Awareness, enlightenment. Nodes on a tree, we might be.

[@evanpeterson8634]

Yes we are all branches on that tree. But who is the tree we are growing in? What is that seed? To me that is Christ.

[@kiara4345]

@@curcumin417 exactly

[@eefbarzelay6719]

pain is the price of admission for the ride of life

[@stephengreico504]

Then I want a refund

[@mycount64]

Suffering and compassion creates a tight community

[@franciscordon9230]

Exactly Lex. Beautifully put.

[@lashropa]

Wonderful.

[@bronxmosthated1]

Thank you

[@radhakrishna1845]

Ian Hutchinson.... Pain is physical... Suffering is mental.... Pain gets amplified due to mental Constipation.... Mental Diarrhea.. Your mind has the capacity to make a hell out of heaven... Or a heaven out of hell... That is why we all need inner engineering... Inner exploration... ❤

[@dianeaustin2414]

One must explain their concept of suffering. Physical pain is suffering. Emotional pain is a type of suffering. Mental, etc, etc. We know physical pain has a clear, fundamental purpose.

[@elenabob4953]

I hate suffering and it's even difficult to see it and understand that's not much that you can do about it nevertheless that not a reason for me not to try. Even if I hate to admit it suffering helps you develop ( it was my case) and the bright side that makes me keep the faith into humanity is that someone who suffers dosent usually propagate more suffering.

[@MikeJones-mf2fw]

We were born to be evolved. Evolution involves pressures as a mechanism. Pressures are mostly pain.

[@_eddiecole]

Video chat/message a friend, be a good friend, make each others lives a tiny bit better. Be there for people, be there for yourself, and Transcend self and other.

[@voggvogg]

This guest was really interesting (and he looks like the Stranger Things science teacher to boot~).

[@wowwowwow185]

suffering ,makes you .kinder if you let it !

[@markorendas1423]

LIFE IF LOOKED AT IS ABSOLUTELY AS IS. NO ONE TRULY ESCAPES LIVING AND NOT SUFFERING AT ONE POINT OR ANOTHER. THERES NO PARTICULAR JUSTICE EITHER MOST THINGS WIND UP EVENING OUT. THAT IS IF ONE DOESNT GO AROUND CAUSING MAYHEM CHAOS OR DESTRUCTION....

[@steveblomefield9513]

Before Adam sinned, there was no suffering. No sickness, sorrow, shame, tears, pain. After the day of judgment, there will be no suffering in heaven. Only love, joy, peace, unity, triumph. This shows that the root of suffering is sin. Our own sin and the sin of others towards us. In hell where there is intense sin, there is also intense suffering. While we are in this intermediate stage between adam and heaven, suffering is, sadly, inevitable. I am comforted that Jesus came and suffered with us and was a victim of suffering. So he knows exactly what we go through.

[@JohnDoe-fg9ng]

Since you say the root of suffering is sin, and there is no suffering in heaven, there would be no sin in heaven? Would you have no free will then if you can't sin anymore? Also what type of sin is causing 2000 innocent children to die of cancer every year in the US?

[@steveblomefield9513]

@@JohnDoe-fg9ng There is no evil, no sin, no suffering in heaven. The flesh, ie man's instincts will be removed because we are not made of flesh anymore but spirit. You are not what you see in your mirror. You are the spirit in your body, the real you. This is eternal. Heaven is only for those who love righteousness and hate sin, love Jesus, and hate evil. We will become like Jesus, pure love. Only human, not divine. Those who love pleasure go to hell, but there is no pleasure in hell. 2000 people die of cancer each year. Many or most of these die from dangerous foods/flavourants and chemicals made by manufacturing. These dangerous chemicals are created by greedy manufacturers who only care for profit and not the suffering caused by their profit-making. Some are caused by genetics gone wrong. Human biology. This is the outcome of the sin of Adam. Droughts, floods, storms caused by climate change caused by humans.

[@garyryan8830]

Suffering is optional…it is not required.

[@Diss_hearten]

Alan watts gave the most profound answer to this question, in my opinion.

[@Ablequerq]

What did he say?

[@beammeupscotty3074]

its amazing how many excuses that don't make any sense, sweeping all logic and compassion and LOVE in the sewer of conmen

[@KekoaSkills]

Duality

[@scottchase8014]

Forget not to tell Tammy Porter that I miss her And I know Karen kettlety is getting older and I care about her too I'm glad I got to help her with her organic lamb and do a little farm work for and kettlety I'll always think of her as a sweetheart that little girl marching with Martin Luther King Jr what a sweetheart

[@BuceGar]

Suffering is a prerequisite for learning. It is the only thing that allows reality to impose itself on your faulty ideas. This is why it is necessary. As for theodicy, if God continually fixed all your ills, including those that are self-imposed, then you would forever be a child completely incapable of growth. You would, in effect, be living under a benevolent tyrant at the cost of autonomy and responsibility.

[@scottchase8014]

Well I'm just glad you're saying what you are and you know I said what I said just because I get angry too but yes suffering is horrible but it happens that's why we need to all pray and I pray and I pray too and it hurts you know so many people have died by mistakes made by government and by personnel and incorrect training and all these people are never paid back because they're Christian they don't pay Christians back they might give them disability so they have to suffer the rest of life being so poor they can't do anything they want to do......

[@scottchase8014]

Oh yeah comfort is nice just get a couple dogs and move into exile and be a hermit and have no one around that's the best way to do it that way you're alone with God being alone with God is a blessing........

[@apexvadeor3670]

Hutchm

[@scottchase8014]

Yes suffering happens.,.. at least I went to school and our teachers at P.I.T. AND LAB COATS WOULD TELL US WHAT NOT TO DO AND HELP US WITH THINGS WE NEEDED TO DO...,. Never open the hood on a presidential limo..... I kept telling my boss and the service manager that next thing you know the good service manager he hired a moving company loaded all this stuff up and skedaddled with his wife and got out of the area of the old Air Force Base the town was moved on to that poor little dealership suffered a lot of the Town suffered..... That new service manager and my boss and somebody else opened the hood on that presidential limo it looked like a newer one today well the microwave weapon went off in the frame under the driver and fried them they all died of cancer I'm lucky I had 6 in of concrete between me in that limo down underground..... All them people start acting so strange and mean... You know I've had my problems ever since and I'm glad to know it's called The Havana syndrome and now it's been almost 30 years later I understand the presidency will always be evil and there's nothing else that it will be but evil I had my whole life ahead of me..... so put that in your world destroying nuke rockets and smoke it I look forward to Armageddon extinction of the human race

[@yobro125]

1. Suffering could exist in reality because we are a lower forms of consciences living in a slightly corrupted 3D "simulation" of life. 2. The idea of Choice exist which in it self is the idea of opposites or negations(good;bad,better;worse). 3.God is supposed to be "Infinite itself". From a Christian perspective there would have been freewill or a choice in the beginning, so im guessing as well, the idea of bad or suffering was always there, perhaps for learning, erasing(to the extreme), purifying or definition in a dualistic harmonic sense.

[@Ablequerq]

Slightly corrupted? It's severely corrupted.

[@scottsound4711]

Well thats easy ...F..R..Banking System. ...

[@SS-lp8fu]

Suffering is from the perspective of mind.

[@dannydk6]

MustObeyTheRules even Buddhist monks have experienced some form of suffering. To truly live without suffering, one must let go of all earthly attachments. But would you really want to let go of all attachments?

[@sicario_paintball]

1. Everyone suffers. Rich or poor just in different ways. 2. If everyone was satisfied, there will be no need for growth or innovation. 3. Some ways of dying can be painful. Pain is a majority of the negative. Death means you’re gone. You might as well be asleep. 4. Food tastes better when you’re starving opposed to being full everyday. 5. “Everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die to get there.” - unknown

[@diggleda2952]

Can’t have peace without suffering. Yin/Yang

[@beammeupscotty3074]

TODAY GOD REVEALED THE MEANING IN LIFE TO ALL HIS CREATIONS. HE SAID THAT IN ORDER TO ATTAIN MEANING IN LIFE, SPEND ALL YOUR TIME READING THOUSANDS OF BOOKS THAT PROVE LIFE THAT HAS NO MEANING, THEN YOU WILL HAVE NOT WASTED YOUR WHOLE LIFE THINKING THAT LIFE HAS ANY MEANING. Amen...

[@somtimesnever4556]

Im no expert. But ill put my life that the reason for suffering in the world is literally because of 10 or 11 people. Think about it before you call me crazy.

[@littlebird3495]

I don’t think it’s all that crazy. 99% are decent people. You get tangled up with one bad apple and next thing you know, your life is in ruins and the ripple effect is immeasurable.

[@dianeaustin2414]

Hmmmmm...I will need some time.

[@scottchase8014]

That's why I love what God left in Revelation chapter 9 for me the name of ABADDON.. I THINK GOD HAS A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR KNOWING HOW MUCH I LIKE TO SEE THE ANCIENT RUINS AGAIN AND AGAIN TOTALLY WIPED OUT AND DESTROYED

[@scottchase8014]

Death has a name. ABATTON CAN'T REMEMBER THE ANGEL'S NAMES..... IT'S OKAY WE'RE ONLY HUMAN BUT THE REAL ANGELS ARE NOT OF THIS EARTH AT ALL INCLUDING MYSELF APOLLYON...... SOMETIMES JUST HEARING YOU TALK IN HUTCHINSON HELPS ME CALM DOWN BECAUSE OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE THAT WORKED AROUND THE HANFORD AREA AND OREGON AND IDAHO IN THESE WEARING THEIR WHITE COATS SO MANY OF THEM HAVE PASSED AWAY I MISS SO MANY OF THEM SOME OF THEM WOULD NOT EVEN MAKE IT A YEAR AFTER RETIREMENT AND SOMETIMES I WONDER WHY MY UNCLE'S HOUSE THAT START WITH THESE WEIRD PEOPLE IN THERE WHEN HE ALWAYS SAID THAT WAS MY DECONTAMINATION SHOWER IN THE BASEMENT IN MY BEDROOM HOUSE LOOKS SO WEIRD LAST TIME I DROVE BY THERE I KNOW THEM STATE WORKERS STOLE ABSOLUTELY THE STATE WORKERS STEAL ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE'S FAMILY'S MONEY THEY WORK HARD FOR AND THEY STILL THEIR PROPERTY AND THERE'S NOTHING ANY CHRISTIAN MAN OR WOMAN CAN DO TO GET THEIR RIGHTFUL INHERITS BACK WHEN THE COURTS AND THE POLICE ARE ALL CONTROLLED BY NAZIS AROUND THAT AREA OF HANFORD WASHINGTON.... THAT'S WHY I MOVED AWAY TO GO INTO EXILE

[@pootboy5547]

you don't really need to do that many intellectual somersaults involving ghostly deities and double-reverse psychology (SUFFERING IS MY GIFT TO YOU, MORTAL!) when the answer is sitting right behind your eyeballs. a perfectly happy lifeform dies. if it never experiences discomfort-- hunger, cold, heat, pain, desire-- it would just sit in a contented lump until it died, which would be very quickly, if you don't have any impetus to eat, shit, fuck, move-- you wouldn't even have the sense to breathe, since you'd feel no discomfort from suffocating. Discomfort, i.e. a lack or a need unfulfilled, i.e. suffering, is the driving force of all life. The means to compel the organism to seek more energy to sustain itself and reproduce. it's true in a paramecium, it's true in a housefly, an it's true in a H sapien. and it never, ever stops. if it were somehow shut off, every single living organism on the planet would drop to the ground (or sink to the bottom) and die when it ran out of energy-- for humans i guess about 4 minutes, can't really say for cockroaches or elephants or dolphins, but not much longer. that's assuming the individual cells themselves haven't stopped "suffering" as well, i.e. seeking energy, in which case death would be instantaneous.

[@zingmc1918]

A perfect God could understand all but what it was to be weak ignorant and flawed that's why he.p created man.

[@littlebird3495]

I don’t know and I can guarantee this guy doesn’t either.

[@zootsoot2006]

If there were no suffering in the world why would we need God?

[@stime4878]

😂😂😂😂😂😂hearing this guy try to explain god and suffering 😂😂

[@nonconsensualopinion]

Lazy answers from the professor here. If there is no guiding intelligent force in the universe then suffering happens because of randomness and our inability to prevent suffering in all circumstances. Easy. If a creator does exist then the answer depends heavily on what kind of deity you are proposing. All powerful? Merciful? Malevolent? etc. So we'll make an assumption that he's speaking about the Christian god and I'll assume a fairly common set of properties of that god. www.pewforum.org/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe-in-god-what-do-they-mean/ Perhaps our existence does depend on the repetition of reality and the integrity of the physical laws around us. But to claim that it is the best system is nonsense. According to the link provided, 78% of US Christians consider god to be omnipotent/all powerful. Therefore that god could just make it so that we are not well served by regularity and repetition of the physical laws around us and further choose to intervene to prevent suffering. Furthermore, an omnipotent god could simply create a system where such intervention is unnecessary in all cases. He is trying to frame it as humans are as we are and require certain things and that god is simply supplying what is best for us which happens to also include suffering as a side effect. This is nonsense. In the worldview of most Christians, and likely this professor here, humans were created directly by god and therefore if we must suffer necessarily it is a design flaw by our creator.

[@nonconsensualopinion]

@buymebluepills What a terrible design. I think I could have done better with omniscience.

[@curcumin417]

Suffering as a pressure gradient towards higher purpose?

[@codymcbride2036]

There are a lot of assumptions in your comment that aren’t necessarily true.

[@thesmokingburrito9097]

The only law or rule, or Commandment, that should have been is "Thou Shall Not Impose on others" . I mean, asking for help isn't necessarily imposing if you really need it. Don't be an imposition. Why would he have made it more complicated. And where was, "Thou Shall Not Rape"? The Bible has been Wicked Edited. Moses prolly did not exist. Pretty sure Jesus did. And whether or not you are religious. Jesus seemed like a groovy dude who had a good message and tried to spread peace and love, supernaturally, or not. So we in this world get what we expect, we become a prisoner of our past choices, they might become an extremely limited list if choices depending on how much you sacrifice early in life. Everyone's Sacrifice is different. Some more or less than others. We as individuals are where we are because we chose to be. If life starts to suck, you must sacrifice your way out sometimes. Like quitting, foods that are unhealthy, to quitting smoking, alcohol, and drugs, gambling too. Exercise more instead of being lazy. The whole list really costs nothing monitarily, but a shit ton emotionally, physically, and psychologically. Anyway Peace be the Journey ✌️

[@izuanheadstompvega2152]

As soon as i hear all the Jesus talk.. Im out.